77. Editorial Note

At the 493d meeting of the National Security Council on November 15,
1961, Director of Central Intelligence Allen
W. Dulles and Deputy Director for Intelligence Robert Amory briefed the Council on
Sino-Soviet relations and the situation in China, and there was some
related discussion. A record of the meeting, probably drafted by the
Vice President’s military aide Howard L. Burris, describes this portion
of the meeting as follows:

“Mr. Dulles opened the meeting
with the reading and discussion of a prepared report on the
Soviet-Chinese rift. Following the presentation the President asked for
the basis of the current impasse between Russia and Albania. Mr.
Dulles replied that it was
obviously ideological since Albania was one of the smallest countries in
Europe with the lowest per [Page 168]capita income and possibilities and potential in general. Mr.
Amory then discussed the
current food and agricultural shortages in Communist China and brought
out the fact that Chinese advances have been generally retarded across
the board because of crop shortages. The deficient diet has tended to
diminish efficiency in other fields of endeavor. Production generally is
on the decline. A brief outline of the size and disposition of Chinese
armed forces was given. The President then asked what routes of movement
are available for these troops from China to North Viet Nam. Mr.
Amory pointed out and
described the condition of railway and roads of access and cited the
generally inadequate aspects of these avenues. Mr. Dulles cautioned that it should not be
assumed that the Chinese setbacks as well as the ideological rift were
such that the Soviets and Chinese would not be able nor willing to
engage jointly any nation which threatened Communist interests.”
(Johnson Library, Vice Presidential Security
File, National Security Council (II))

The record of the subsequent discussion, which concerned Vietnam, is
printed in Foreign Relations, 1961-1963, volume
I, pages 607-610.